Wednesday, July 24, 2013

By Dipankar Sinha (Guest Writer)The people of West Bengal want to live with security and dignity and desire the fulfilment of basic needs and amenities in everyday life. There are too many pressing issues in the state waiting to get the attention of authorities. Unfortunately, it seems that the powers that be are playing a thankless and self-destructive game of "same side goal".Politics is widely known to have produced a bewildering variety of actions and reactions. Could West Bengal remain far behind? Considering the trends towards what we would prefer to describe as the “same side goal” politics in the state, one can assert that it cannot.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

By Angikaar Choudhary | KolkataSPECIAL FEATURE The Kolkata bhadralok is a snooty lot. He is also slightly lazy. He resists change and clings on to the past. He loves his fish and his rice. He needs his cup of tea along with his biscuit every evening, ideally prepared by his wife. But on the whole, he considers himself aantel (intellectual). He prefers rumination and discussion on arts and culture and scoffs at other more practical topics, believing himself to be unworthy of such materialistic thinking. But on the whole, even if he doesn’t admit it, he still carries deep inside his heart, a childhood love for Leftist ideology.

Monday, December 01, 2014

Will the next Battle of Plassey (well, figuratively) be fought between the BJP and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC)? Wherever it is fought, around Plassey or well to the south of it, it promises to be a dirty war. It will be driven by religious demography.The original Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757, when the forces of the British East India Company defeated Siraj-ud-Daula, the French-backed Nawab of Bengal, paving the way for British domination over eastern India.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

By Likha Veer | INNLIVE BureauFOCUSThe vernacular press in West Bengal is all charged up because BJP stalwarts have promised to deport Bangladeshis if the party comes to power at the Centre. Front page articles and editorials have all denounced this as a move to foment trouble in the state and create divisions between communities. Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh have become villains in the eyes of this section of the media. Those who are indulging in such commentary have either not understood what the BJP wants to do, or are twisting the remarks to create controversy.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Is Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, losing the publicity battle while hanging on to her edge or has she completely misjudged the extent of governance needed in the state that she emphatically wrested from the Left almost two years ago?To be fair, cleansing Bengal of the mess left from 34 years of Left rule is no easy task. But there seems to be no evidence that Banerjee is tackling the mess at all. Instead, you have a chief minister who cannot delegate and has surrounded herself by yes-men as she lurches from controversy to crisis and back.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

By Phalguni Dutta | INNLIVEKNOW YOUR MPsAs we approach the parliamentary elections, India Together presents a quick familiarisation with members of the Lok Sabha in certain key urban constituencies. In the first of the series, INNLIVE introduces you to the sitting MPs from Kolkata and its neighbourhood.An earlier article on India Together had emphasised the roles and responsibilities of our Members of Parliament. As we approach the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April and May, it becomes critical to assess our elected representatives against some of these parameters.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Mainstream media news from West Bengal is depressing to say the least: continuous political sniping if not fighting among the major political formations, death of a student in political custody, policemen getting shot while on duty, ministers getting manhandled while attending Planning Commission meeting and subsequent fall-out resulting in clashes all over the state.Media coverage for the last 20 months of the new regime has been like the above. It would seem for anyone reading these news that the state has ‘gone to the dogs’ and any sense of hope that the residents of the state had of improved life and well-being under the new dispensation is totally lost and there seems to be an underlying clamor to get the old regime back to bring about sense of sanity.However there seems to be some other sets of information that have also come across regarding West Bengal—state GDP growth of 7.6 percent for 2012-13 that is nearly 50 percent higher than the national average, following up on a similar higher growth than national GDP growth rates in 2011-12 also.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Asaduddin Owaisi has tossed his topi (cap) into the Bihar election ring after dithering for a month. But Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)’s prospects in Bihar’s Seemanchal belt are bleak despite the unusually high percentage of Muslim voters in the 25 assembly seats Owaisi is eyeing in the backward region.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

While the violence was low scale compared to riots in other parts of the country, it has scarred the Basirhat area.

Maulana Yasin Mondal speaks slowly, his voice heavy with dismay. “I have never seen anything like this,” Mondal said. “Hindu-Muslim [tension] is unknown in Magurkhali [in the Basirhat sub-division]. We are still in shock.”

Mondal is the imam of Milan Masjid, a mosque which stands opposite the house of the Class 11 student who had been accused of posting the explicit cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad on social media that triggered the first large-scale communal trouble in the area in living memory. From July 2, the Basirhat sub-division of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal was in the grip of violence that lasted for close to a week and claimed one life.

Monday, May 06, 2013

By CJ Richa Rai in KolkataThe conditions of hospitals in West Bengal is very disappointing, specially in Kolkata, the conditions of government hospitals as well as the private hospitals are worsening day by day. For a progressive country, good medical treatment becomes highly important. An average 40,000 infants die every year in West Bengal. Many people died due to the negligence of medical treatment.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

COMMENTARY Just a few days ago I met a friend, staying abroad these
days due to his work, after a long time. But instead of having a usual wholesome
adda (meaning gossip in Bengali) session
like our old days, this time around, all we discussed was something extremely
grave that has become a cause of national concern lately.

Once called the ‘city of joy’ and known for all its enriching
cultural and creative activities, Kolkata of today is mostly getting recognized
ubiquitously as a city that is not only unsafe for women but where the violent
social disease called ‘rape’ has become a routine practice. Though Kolkata
isn’t the only metro city in India to have witnessed such reprehensible acts in
recent times but there is little doubt that Kolkata is fast loosing its
reputation of being one of the most friendly and safe destinations of this vast
country.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

By M H Ahssan / KolkataSaradha is just the tip of an ice berg that may have already sunk Rs 4,000 crore of poor investors’ money.According to a report in the INN, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which woke up to the reality of late, has asked the West Bengal government to launch immediate probe against five more such schemes in the state, which may have mopped up Rs 4,000 crore of investor money.

Friday, March 06, 2009

At Least 10 Left LS Seats In South Bengal Look Vulnerable To Mamata Tide

The Red bastion in West Bengal is under threat. No one in CPM, from Jyoti Basu to the activist in the para, will deny this. Nor the fact that the number of Left MPs from West Bengal this time will be far below the existing 35. The question is how far? Will the Opposition cross the 16-seat mark that Congress bagged in 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination? Trends in south Bengal over last nine months in the post-Nandigram era till the recent Assembly bypoll in Bishnupur West in South 24-Parganas indicate the Opposition tally could be anything between 15 and 19, provided the Congress-Trinamool alliance works down to the grassroots. The scene looks similar to the Assembly elections in 2001, when Congress had a formal alliance with Trinamool. But this time the Opposition has advantages beyond the arithmetic of coalition politics. Unlike in 2001, Mamata has been able to dent CPM’s rural bastion in south Bengal with her grassroots approach. Mamata has won acceptance among urban intelligentsia that was till the other day a monopoly of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

At least 10 Lok Sabha seats in south Bengal, now with CPM, look vulnerable. They include two seats in East Midnapore Tamluk and Contai, two in South 24-Parganas Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, two in North 24-Parganas Bongaon and Barasat, two in Hooghly Serampore and Hooghly, the Uluberia seat in Howrah and Krishnagar in Nadia. In all these areas, 50% of gram panchayat seats went to Trinamool, as seen recently in Bishnupur West Assembly bypoll in South 24-Parganas.

CPM’s vote share is down to 40% and prospects in another three seats — namely Kolkata North, Jadavpur, Ranaghat will depend on the mechanics of the Opposition alliance and the candidate.

This is minus the five constituencies in north Bengal, now with Congress. The CPM, has, however and edge in the Darjeeling constituency if Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha does not support the Congress. The Opposition, on the other hand, is at an advantage in Coochbehar constituency where the Forward Bloc is a little ahead.

A closer look at the rural constituencies in south Bengal bears out a method in the shifting voting pattern. All these constituencies come under areas where the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government acquired land or tried to acquire land — not just Singur or Nandigram.

Burdwan, however, stands out as an exception to the rule, though not without discontent. CPM leaders met with a blow when CPM Katwa MP Abu Ayes Mondal dumped the party on the eve of the elections. CPM’s headache in most of these areas is Bengali Muslim farmers who have switched loyalties, despite Bhattacharjee’s sops in housing and education.

Senior CPM leaders, however, believe Mamata’s recent overtures to win Muslims in the rural and urban areas would have a negative impact on her anti-CPM Hindu vote bank, a sizeable portion of which might vote for BJP. The Hindu vote would be a deciding factor in Kolkata North where BJP’s Tathagata Ray will be contesting.

The urban scene is ridden with cross-currents. Even as Mamata has her own clout among the urban poor and middle class, a section of the educated middle class and the young, seem disgusted with Mamata’s kneejerk stirs and bandhs, and the way she drove out the Tatas.

Mamata has faced it in her home turf during the durga puja when an elderly woman showed her a black flag at a south Kolkata puja pandal. For south Kolkata after delimitation is no more the one that it used to be. The new Kolkata South constituency, has an Assembly segment Kolkata Port under it including stretches such as Kabitirtha and parts of Garden Reach where the Trinamool Congress trailed the CPM in the last elections. This is not all. The new Kasba Assembly segment is another where Trinamool trails badly. The Trinamool chief has to make up for the loss with Behala West, Rashbehari and the new Bhowanipore, for she will not be getting a big margin from Behala East. Mamata needs the Congress this time, just as the Congress wants her to stymie the Left. For a tie-up with the Congress will help her make over the lag in Garden Reach where Congress leader Ram Pyare Ram has a stable base.

HOT SEATS Jangipur: Represented by high-profile Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, this prestigious North Bengal seat has become more favourable to the Congress after delimitation. Mukherjee, who has recently rented a house here, isn’t leaving anything to chance. Pranab has been nursing this constituency since he got elected from here in 2004

Raiganj: As Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi is ailing, his wife Deepa is likely to get the party ticket from here

Kolkata South: Represented by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the party’s face and the only crowd-puller. After delimitation, the constituency has some tough assembly segments like Kolkata Port, Kasba and parts of Garden Reach

Bolpur: CPM MP from Birbhum Ramchandra Dom will fight from this seat which is reserved for an SC candidate. In 2004, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had won from here with over 3 lakh votes

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

It could be the infighting in the Left, and not the Trinamool-Congress alliance, which could spell doom for the Red brigade in West Bengal, writes Saugar Sengupta

Muslim, Mahajot, Mamata: paltabey Banglar kshamata (Muslims, Mahajot and Mamata will change Bengal’s power structure). This is what a poll-graffiti says deep inside a minority area in Kolkata’s Garden Reach.

It seems that her Batla House tirade against the persecutors of “innocent” Muslims, along with the relentless campaign for justice for Rizwanur Rehman’s family, and her success at driving away industry from the paddy fields (which incidentally belonged mostly to Muslims) of Nandigram and Singur have paid the desired dividends to Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee.

Last month, the buoyed Trinamool chief had said during the Bishnupur by-election campaign: “In the coming general elections, the CPI(M) will fall with a thud, and in the 2011 Assembly polls, they will fall into bits.”

Will Banerjee’s prophesy come true? With the Trinamool Congress and Congress having struck an alliance (Mahajot) in West Bengal, the “invincible” Left in the State has reason to worry.

State Congress vice-president Subroto Mukherjee backed a Mahajot since he thought the Congress’ 16 per cent vote share and the Trinamool’s 32 per cent vote share would combine well to bring about a communist fall in West Bengal.

Said Behrampore MP Adhir Chowdhury: “Nandigram and Bishnupur have shown what a combined Opposition can do to the Left Front. Every time, the Marxists have benefited from a fractured voting pattern. This time round, the Mahajot has come in time.” It would increase the Opposition seat by 300 per cent, he said.

Nadia strongman and Congress leader Shankar Singh said, “The effectiveness of a united fight against the CPI(M) can never be denied, as the percentage of votes polled by the Opposition would suggest.”

It was the Left Front’s losses in the Nandigram, Bishnupur and Sujapur Assembly bypolls that gave impetus to the grand alliance initiative.

The Trinamool not only covered a deficit of about 15,000 votes, but also wrested Nandigram from the Left by a margin of 39,500. Similarly, Congress won Sujapur in Malda by 21,000 votes, an increment of 2,000. The Bishnupur seat, which the Left had last time won by 4,000 votes, was bagged by the Trinamool by a margin of 30,000 votes.

“In all cases, the Left fell to a united opposition,” said Trinamool leader Partho Chattopadhyay. “The CPI(M) will face a humiliating defeat in the general elections and the 2011 Assembly polls.”

Observers believe that if the Mahajot works properly in the Muslim dominated districts of Murshidabad, Malda, Nadia, the two 24 Parganas and East Midnapore — Muslims constitute between 42 per cent and 57 per cent of the total voters in these areas — the Opposition could scrape through.

Which explains why Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu conceded that fighting a united Opposition would be tough. “Our seat strength may dwindle,” he said.

State CPI(M) secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose too said that the Front would have a mountain to climb this time round.

Yet, Banerjee’s 2001 Assembly poll experience, when an alliance was struck between her and Pranab Mukherjee, suggests caution. At that time, then PCC president Somen Mitra played spoilsport by incapacitating the grand alliance through covert means.

In the current situation, different interests are pulling in different directions. A possé of PCC satraps like Manas Bhunia, Pradip Bhattacharya, Shankar Singh, Deepa Dasmunshi, Abdul Mannan and Adhir Chowdhury have expressed their reservations for the Mahajot. They have officially maintained that the Congress should go for an honourable understanding that should include “at least 16 seats including 12 winnable ones from the Trinamool, an unconditional apology from the Trinamool leadership for publicly castigating Pranab Mukherjee and not the least, liberty not to support Congress turncoats like Sudip Bandopadhyay and Somen Mitra who have recently joined the Trinamool in quest of tickets.”

Though these leaders have been coerced by the Congress high command to join cause with Mamata Banerjee, there is sufficient doubt how diligently these leaders will follow Delhi’s instructions.

“Then there are personal interests to be pursued,” says an insider, pointing out how Bhunia is eyeing the Kolkata North seat, already fixed for Bandopadhyay. Pradip Bhattacharya is gunning for the Serampore seat which has already been earmarked by the Trinamool chief for party lawyer Kalyan Banerjee. Third, Dasmunshi would not like Banerjee’s setting foot in North Bengal, a fief that has for all practical purposes become hers.

On the other hand, the effectiveness of the Mahajot will erode substantially in the North Bengal constituencies where the Gorkhaland movement has given a reason to Bengalis to rally behind the ruling Marxists.

In central Bengal, the erosion of the Left’s minority vote bank has been lesser as was proved in the panchayat elections when the Front wrested back the Muslim majority Murshidabad district board from the invincible Adhir Chowdhury.

The Left leadership on its part says the results of a few stray elections should not be taken as a rule since all the three constituencies of Nandigram, Bishnupur and Sujapur belonged to the Opposition. While in Bishnupur 11 out of 12 panchayat samitis belonged to the Trinamool, in Nandigram all but one panchayats were controlled by the Trinamool-backed BUPC. And Sujapur in Malda has always been a Congress bastion.

Hence, says a veteran Marxist leader requesting anonymity, “No Mahajot can obliterate the Left from West Bengal”. Instead, he says the Left can only be defeated by the Left. He shows how infighting in the Front — between CPI(M) and RSP and CPI(M) and Forward Bloc — have cost them many seats. “North and South 24 Parganas are two cases in point,” he says.

The chinks in the Left’s armour were exposed recently when sitting Katwa CPI(M) MP Abu Ayes Mondal joined Trinamool Congress after he was denied a ticket by his party.

With interest grouping on the rise in the CPI(M), it is not a jot (coalition) but a ghot (intrigue) that could see the back of the Left.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

By Poonam Mondal / KolkataCharacter assassination, social and economic ostracisation and even assault, seem to have become the standard responses to all who protest against the culture of violence against women in West Bengal.Kamduni, a village 25 kilometres from Kolkata, has become representative of the modes of intimidation against women that is now routine in West Bengal. The people here have learnt the hard way that they must “shut up” or else be branded as agent provocateurs by the ruling regime.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Burdwan in West Bengal, a city about 150 kilometers from Kolkata, was the location in early October of a blast inside a house which resulted in the death of two men, Shakil Ahmed and Swapan Mondal. Another man injured in the blast was later detained with with two women who were also present at the time of the blast and reportedly disclosed that those present at the time were all members of the terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JuM-B/JMB) - and were planning to carry out attacks across Bangladesh.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

By M H Ahssan | INNLIVE BureauPOLITICAL ANALYSISMamata Banerjee has likened Narendra Modi to Lord Hanuman and has said that he has tied a tail, put it on fire and is touring India burning perceived Lankas. If Banerjee had the time to read up the scriptures, she would not have made this analogy. For, Lord Hanuman’s tail was put on fire by the orders of the hated asura Ravana, and the burning of Lanka took place as punishment for the same. The Lanka that was rebuilt was rid of its vices by Lord Ram’s intervention and was the perfect place for the compassionate rule of Vibhisana.

Friday, October 11, 2013

By Kajol Singh / INN LiveThe very severe cyclonic storm Phailin, expected to make landfall at Gopalpur in Odisha, moved closer to the state and lay about 600 km southeast of Paradip, as the government sought the help of defence forces to boost its preparedness, official sources said."The system Phailin over east central Bay of Bengal moved northwestwards slightly, intensified further and lay centred at about 600 km southeast of Paradip and 700 km southeast of Gopalpur," the latest bulletin issued by the IMD said. (Latest Live Updates, check our 'Live News Ticker' to know more.)

Sunday, April 27, 2014

By Mahesh Mahtolia | DelhiIn today's scenario, this question is not out place. How relevant is the Left today? Looking outside of India, The Erstwhile Communists are flourishing only in China and Cuba, to count the few last bastions of Leftism. To say it is a dying concept would not be untrue. The Left was dealt its death blow with the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, which led to its defeat in the Cold War. That was more than 20 years ago. Since then, Communism carries on in just a few small pockets other than China.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

By Avinash Behl / INN BureauThe UPA’s decision to move ahead with the creation of the new state of Telangana has only managed to take the lid off the cauldron of demands regarding statehood from every nook and corner of the country including from those areas that were relatively calm because of the existence of Autonomous Councils.Demand for a separate Bodoland in Assam, which was lying dormant for a while after the creation of Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD), now again threatens to intensify. The region already had a bloodied past when terrorist organisations like the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and Bodo Liberation Tigers were at their peak in the 90s.